International migration and its impacts on inequality and education

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[eng] This thesis studies the impacts of international migration and pays special attention on how it alters economic inequality and on how it affects education, or human capital accumulation in general.
The first chapter theoretically demonstrates that the short- and the long-run impacts of migration/remittances on income inequality in the origin community may be of opposite signs, suggesting that the dynamic relationship between the two may well be characterized by an inverse U-shaped pattern. This is consistent with the findings of the empirical literature, yet offers a different interpretation from the usually assumed migration network effects. With no need to endogenize migration costs through the role of migration networks, the same results are generated via intergenerational wealth accumulation.
The second chapter constructs a unified generic framework in order to assess the global effects of brain drain on developing economies. The findings suggest that the short-run impact of brain drain on resident human capital is extremely crucial, as it does not only determine the number of skilled workers available to domestic production, but it also affects the sending economy’s capacity to innovate or to adopt modern technologies. The latter impact plays an important role particularly in a globalized economy where capital investments tend to be made in places with higher production efficiencies. Those countries with high skilled emigration rates are thus the most candid victims to brain drain.
The third chapter provides a political-economic model to study the impact of low-skilled immigration on the host country’s education system. It is found that when the number of low-skilled immigrants is large, the education regime tends to become more segregated with wealthier locals more likely to opt out of the public system into privately funded schools. This occurs due to four main effects of immigration, which include (1) greater congestion in public schools; (2) a lower average tax base for education funding; (3) reduced wages for low-skilled workers and so more dependence by low-skilled locals on public education; (4) a greater skill premium, which makes it easier for high-skilled locals to afford private education for their children, and hence weakens their support for financing public school.